Digitisation without Digital Evidence
A detail of an outcome from a participatory session in Sweden. Refugee resettlement in Sweden is digital by default. (Image courtesy of ESSfES (EPSRC grant number: EP/N02561X/1).
People Powered Algorithms has carried out research into the use of and attitudes towards technology within Sweden’s asylum system. Asylum seekers are at the centre of rapid digital innovation in systems designed to perform surveillance, mobility, welfare and identity for state entities like Sweden, who have the capacity to explore these options. We ask, why do some states rush to digitalise asylum systems, while others do not?
States and asylum seekers are at the centre of rapid digital innovation in surveillance, mobility, welfare and identity. Why do some states rush to digitalise asylum systems, while others do not? Why is the pace and form of digitalisation within countries uneven within asylum agencies? In this article, we examine drivers of the digitalisation of the Swedish state, in particular uneven digitalisation within the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket). While many processes were swiftly digitalised, we found that Swedish bureaucrats, rather than politicians or activist lawyers, resisted the adoption of digital evidence within the refugee status determination process, despite enthusiastically digitising elsewhere. We explore these differences by looking at the historical, institutional and cultural bases of Swedish refugee policy. We present evidence from fieldwork in Sweden and find an unequal pace of digitalisation that was largely dependent on bureaucratic risk-aversion, extant legal norms, and perceived vulnerability to fraud.
Abstract from Nicholas R Micinski, Will Jones, Digitization without digital evidence: Technology and Sweden’s asylum system, Journal of Refugee Studies, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feab041
From a participatory session. One of the themes that emerged strongly from this session was that the use of the mobile phone is often a double-edged sword. (Image courtesy of ESSfES (EPSRC grant number: EP/N02561X/1).